Films and politics have remained two of the most exciting and rewarding activities on the Indian scene. Politics has offered new opportunities for fading film stars to play heroes and heroines, this time in real life. Vinod Khanna was not very active in films when the BJP offered him the Lok Sabha seat from Gurdaspur and gaining from a BJP wave, he won. For a long time, Raj Babbar was a “Trishanku” in Bollywood, swinging between hero and villain’s roles and the call from Mulayam Singh Yadav to join the Samajwadi Party must have come as a welcome relief.
When film stars join politics out of strong commitment or a genuine desire to do public good, their credibility is intact. Sunil Dutt who had a clean record in public life entered politics to help Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a family friend who had nominated his wife Nargis to the Rajya Sabha. Dutt, along with Nargis, had entertained jawans at border posts and helped her in starting the Spastics Society of India. After Nargis died, Dutt continued the good work. The Nargis Dutt Cancer Foundation did admirable work and Dutt undertook long peace marches in India and abroad to defuse militancy in Punjab and seek a ban on nuclear weapons. Dutt held fast to the Congress ideology and kept winning the Lok Sabha seat from Mumbai North-West even on occasions when the Congress drew a blank in the rest of the city. Politics could do with more Sunil Dutts.
Amitabh Bachchan’s brief stint with the Congress was due to his friendship with Rajiv Gandhi, but his political career floundered following the Bofors scandal that tarred and feathered Gandhi. Hounded by the V.P. Singh government and the media, Bachchan made a quick exit from politics and vowed never to return. Nearly 10-years later, he was back in party politics, campaigning for his “friend and younger brother”, Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party and its leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, both of whom had shattered the dream of Sonia Gandhi to head a Congress-led coalition at the Centre. Was this a repeat of the “Namak Haram” role for Bachchan?
On a recent television programme, Shabana Azmi, Independent member of the Rajya Sabha, argued that her status without any party affiliation helped her credibility and won her difficult battles. “I can talk to the Prime Minister, his cabinet colleagues and State Chief Ministers and move things. This may not be possible if I wore a party label. My actions would be mis-interpreted as political and vote catching moves.” To a certain extent, she is right though Sunil Dutt’s links with the Congress did not hamper his effort to “move things.”
Ideology apart, how significant is the selfishness motive which has drawn film stars to politics? Vyjayanthimala Bali, after an undistinguished stint as the Congress MP, was denied a party ticket for the Lok Sabha. Miffed, she immediately joined the BJP. No questions of ideology here, only self-interest. Sometimes, pure luck carried some of the film stars to dizzying heights in politics. Remember Dipika, who played Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s TV serial, “Ramayana”? Exploiting the Hindutva fervour generated by the serial, the BJP nominated Dipika for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, which she won. She spent one term in the Lok Sabha without speaking a word.
Film stars, according to him, could achieve more by way of social causes, by remaining outside active politics. Veteran star, Dev Anand, agreed. He started a unit of the Janata Party immediately after the Emergency was lifted, but soon gave it up in disgust because of in-fighting and ego clashes. “I do not go near politics now,” he confessed.
In trend-setting Hollywood, a failed actor Ronald Reagan became the Governor of California and then a Republican President of the US. His Teflon charm hid the fact of his being a total failure in the job. His ignorance of international affairs was abysmal and one felt he was acting all the time at the White House.
Top Hollywood stars did take interest in politics, supporting the Republicans or the Democrats as per their conservative or liberal leanings. But few of them entered active politics and made a run for office. Actors like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and actress Meryl Streep came out against war hysteria, nuclear threat, and injustice to Native Americans and free availability of deadly guns. Issues interested them more than political plums.
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